2015 New England ITA Preview

New England ITA Preview

Happy Thursday, boys and girls! It’s that time of the year again, time for another exciting weekend full of ITAs! D3Central already did his schtick, D3West has given us a PNW preview, D3Regional will be giving us a Northeast preview, but I’m lucky enough to bring you a preview of the most talented ITA in the country. The New England ITA may lose Matt Heinrich (Stevens) and Kai Yuen Leung (Skidmore) to the Northeast ITA, but it remains by far the deepest ITA around. One of the Central ITAs has the cool feature of being a 128 draw, but i’d definitely put these 64 guys against any other region’s draw of 64. An interesting article for another time, I guess. I cannot bring myself to preview each individual match, mainly because it’s a Thursday and it’s time to go out, but I will leave you all with my predictions at the bottom of the article. This is so you all actually look at the bottom of the article, and also get to make fun of me when everything inevitably goes horribly wrong. Let’s begin with the singles.

THE ROAR-ers: A category looking at the favorites. You’ll get it soon.

Andrew Yaraghi (Amherst): We start, as any good “favorites” section should, with the top seed in Andrew Yaraghi (Amherst). Yaraghi was pretty close to dominant at #1 last year, and enters his senior season as one of the best players in both the region and the country. He doesn’t have too favorable of a draw, especially for a #1 seed, but I would be surprised to see him lose before the quarterfinals.

Carl Reid (Colby): Reid followed his fantastic freshman campaign with a slightly disappointing end to his sophomore season, a first round loss at NCAAs. Reid has decided to stay for his junior fall, and while he’s only been working with Coach Cohen for a couple weeks now I’m excited to see what he can do on the Fall’s biggest stage. He’s also not entered in the doubles (probably bc Murad is abroad) so he should be fresh through the weekend.

Noah Farrell (Midd): Noah is coming off a great weekend at Middlebury, and is looking to keep the momentum going. At Midd, he ran away with the A-Flight, rolling both Telkedzhiev (Tufts) and Granoff (Brandeis) in the process. The little guy is always going to be a tough out, and it appears (granted it’s only been one week) he’s made a jump from freshman to sophomore year. Personally, I’d love to see a 3-hour finals where Yaraghi and Farrell just grind until the other can no longer stand.

THE HOT AND COLDS: A category looking at the guys with tons of talent who could very easily win the whole thing, but also could go down early.

Michael Liu (Wesleyan): Liu made a heck of a run last year at this ITA, earning a semifinal bid with wins over Roddy (Bowdoin), Murad (Colby), Revzin (Amherst), and Planche (Bates) before his eventual loss to Solimano (Amherst). Michael had a minor hiccup to start the year, in a straight set loss to Matt Heinrich (Stevens). That being said, I think most people are going to lose to Heinrich this year (early favorite for NCAA singles title?) so I don’t fault Liu much there. He’s a gamer, and will certainly be fit enough to make a run deep into the weekend. He has a pretty difficult draw, especially for a top-8 seed. He gets Zach Hall (Gordon) in the 1st round, who made a good run here last year, then would likely get Raghavan (Williams), and then either Tercek (Bowdoin) or Campbell (Midd). Tough draw, but a tough kid, if he can survive Friday, he should be in good shape to make another deep run.

Luke Trinka (Bowdoin): Trinka broke onto the DIII singles scene by winning the whole damn tournament two years ago, and has been in the Polar Bear top 2 ever since. Luke had an excellent Bowdoin Invitational earlier this month, and looks primed to challenge for his second ITA trophy in three years. Trinka has a tough 1st round match with Joachin Samson (Wesleyan), and would likely face off against Rohan Gupte (Tufts) in the third round. I’m betting that whoever wins that 3rd round match will make the final four and perhaps even more.

Michael Solimano (Amherst): I almost made it through two sections without talking about Sexy Soli and the one hander of destiny (yes D3West, I’m stealing it). Michael will serve and volley at you until the cows come home, and his slice forehand gives the best players fits. As a defending champ, Solimano got a #9-16 seed, and a first round date with Bowdoin freshman Jerry Jiang (more on him later). If Mike gets through the first round, his next challenge should come from Carl Reid in a barnburner of a 3rd round matchup. Very much contrasting styles of play (although Solimano contrasts with just about anybody) and a match that should be highly entertaining. Let’s hope we’re all so lucky.

THE DARK HORSES: A category looking at some of the unseeded guys with nice draws who could be potential sleepers.

Alex Schidlovsky (Williams): Greenberg seems to have some pretty interesting tactics, Raventos got the #5 seed even though he played #3 vs. Wesleyan the other day, and Shastri got a #9-16 seed. Schidlovsky, who played #1 vs. Vassar and took down a tough Nick Litsky 3&3, is unseeded and very dangerous. Maybe that’s just what Greenberg wants? With a likely road of Revzin (Amherst), Wolfe (Bowdoin), and Granoff just to earn a quarterfinal date with Yaraghi, it’s certainly an uphill battle for old Al.

Ben Rosen (Bates): It was surprising to see Rosen in the A-Flight at Middlebury last weekend. That being said, he took down Kai Yuen Leung (Skidmore) and pushed Palmer Campbell to 11-9 in a superbreaker. A lot of Bates ITA hopes (and not to be too dramatic, but their spring season) might hinge on whether or not the lanky sophomore can continue to play with the best. Rosen has Tyler Ng (Brandeis) in the first round and then a matchup with the winner of Shastri (Williams) and Traff (Trinity Ct) before likely getting Ari Smolyar (Midd) in the 3rd round.

Luke Tercek (Bowdoin): This category could also be called, tall kids who play tennis. Tercek was close to unbeatable last spring (in fact his only loss at #5 last year came to Rosen, 10-8 in a superbreaker) and he had a good showing at the Bowdoin Invitational a few weeks ago. Tercek certainly has the game to make a run, although fitness could be an issue for the big fella. He has a tough first round match with Ben Battle (Tufts), and it doesn’t get any easier after that. Tercek would likely face Palmer Campbell (Midd) in the 2nd round and then Michael Liu in the 3rd round.

THE TEENAGE DREAMS: A category looking at the freshmen with the best chance to impress. While there are certainly a few freshmen in the draw, here are two to keep an eye on.

Zach Bessette (Amherst): The top of Amherst’s best recruiting class since 2012, Bessette and Levitin should have a real chance to contribute for the Jeffs as they look to improve on last year’s NCAA quarterfinal loss. Levitin isn’t in the singles draw, which might tell us something about Doebler’s current thought process (or Levitin’s hurt, away, etc. and it might tell us nothing). For whatever reason, Bessette got one of Amherst’s five singles spots in the draw, and will compete against Emerson Kelby (Southern Maine) before likely facing off against Ari Smolyar (Midd) in the 2nd round.

Jerry Jiang (Bowdoin): Like Bessette and Amherst, Jiang is one of two 4-stars brought in as a part of Bowdoin’s big recruiting class. Also like Bessette, Jiang got in the main draw while his 4-star counterpart did not. Jiang is also one of 5 Polar Bears to get into the tournament, and the only freshman. Jiang has quite the first round task, serve and volley master and defending ITA champ Michael Solimano (Amherst). Let’s see how Jiang handles the seasoned vet.  

Sean Ko and Alex Cauneac (MIT): Ah yes, the highly anticipated MIT recruiting class. This will be an excellent time to make a first impression. Ko is one of two five-stars to hit the DIII landscape (the other being Pei at U-Chicago), and Cauneac is one of the higher ranked 4-stars to enter our friendly little world. Some bloggers were flipping out a bit out this class, but I tend to go with the time-tested wait and see approach. I’m nervous about anything having to do with MIT, but this would certainly be a good time to start changing my mind. Ko has a #9-16 seed, but his section of the draw is chalk-full of tough outs. Cauneac will take on James Smith (Nichols) in the 1st round, and then a likely date with #2 Carl Reid (Colby) in the second round.

Joachim Samson (Wesleyan): Samson didn’t play singles in Wesleyan’s recent 7-2 win over Stevens, but the Filipino freshman is slotted in as Wesleyan’s 4th singles player this weekend. That means he got the call over guys like Smith, Daniels, and even Yadav (who could’ve done some damage here). If Fried believes in him this much, there must be something there. I’m excited to see what the young gun does with his opportunity. Joachim has a VERY tough first round matchup with #7 Luke Trinka (Bowdoin), which should provide an immediate barometer for young Mr. Samson.

FIREWORKS: A category looking at the best early round matchups. No analysis, just a handful of matches I would love to see in person…

1st Round: Michael Liu (Wesleyan) vs. Zach Hall (Gordon), Rohan Shastri (Williams) vs. Ford Traff (Trinity Ct), Gil Roddy (Bowdoin) Ryan Bunis (Brandeis), Sean Ko (MIT) vs. Brian Grodecki (Williams), Aaron Revzin (Amherst) vs. Alvin Schidlovsky (Williams).

Potential 2nd Round: Jake Roberts (Wesleyan) vs. Nik Telkedzhiev (Tufts), Ben Rosen (Bates) vs. Rohan Shastri (Williams), Palmer Campbell (Midd) vs. Luke Tercek (Bowdoin).

PART OF ME: A category looking at the doubles draw. The doubles is always nearly impossible to predict, but I’ll throw out a couple of teams I think have a good chance at making it to Sunday. For whatever reason, this year’s draw looks even more wildly unpredictable than usual. Revzin/Solimano (Amherst) are the top seeds, and have an easy path to the quarterfinals. There they’d take on the Eph team of Schidlovsky/Raventos (Williams). I was a little upset to see Shastri/Raventos (Williams) broken up, but if Schidlovsky is playing on another level then this team could be the 2nd best team in the draw. Tough quarterfinal.

Trinka/Tercek (Bowdoin) are seeded pretty highly for a Polar Bears doubles team, especially one that hovered around .500 for most of 2014-2015. However, a team with a year of experience is better than the majority of the draw, and if they can get past a sneaky 2nd round matchup with Glickman/Traff then I think they should make a deep run.

Both Battle/Cary (Tufts) and Liu/Brint (Wesleyan) earned top 5 seeds for the tournament, meaning the committee thinks pretty highly of them. However, doubles has never been the strongest suit for either the Jumbos or Cards, and both have tough first round matchups. We might just see an upset.

Finally, here is what you’ve been waiting for. PREDICTION TIME. Let’s Marvin Gaye and get it on (damnit, I broke the theme). Note, these predictions are bound to change as the tournament goes on. Ok? Good.   

Quarterfinals:

Yaraghi (Amherst) vs. Schidlovsky (Williams)

Telkedzhiev (Tufts) vs. Farrell (Midd)

Smolyar (Midd) vs. Liu (Wesleyan)

Gupte (Tufts) vs. Reid (Colby)  

Semifinals:

Yaraghi (Amherst) vs. Farrell (Midd)

Liu (Wesleyan) vs. Gupte (Tufts)

Revzin/Solimano (Amherst) vs. Battle/Cary (Tufts)

Trinka/Tercek (Bowdoin) vs. Campbell/Smolyar (Midd)

Runner Up(s):

Rohan Gupte (Tufts)

Palmer Campbell/Ari Smolyar (Midd)

Champion(s):

Noah Farrell (Midd)

Aaron Revzin/Michael Solimano (Amherst)